Ch.126Social Interactions and Cults (1)

In Carisia’s plan, Knemon was a kind of bait.

His job was to faithfully participate in the Mage Tower Master selection and earn the qualification. In other words, to stay true to his ambition. Carisia’s preparation to eliminate Arguirion would happen behind the scenes, without anyone knowing.

“I’m not sure what kind of tasks the Ten Towers will assign to verify the candidates’ abilities. But it’s certain everyone will actively use behind-the-scenes tactics.”

“You mean assassination?”

Carisia nodded at Ortes’s question. The Tower Master selection was essentially a process of elimination until only one remained.

If one reduced the number of participants in advance, naturally the chances of their preferred candidate rising would increase.

“Well, assassination would be the easiest, but they’ll use various other methods too. Like forming alliances between sponsors to unify candidates. Knowledge is a resource that can be shared.”

Twirling a strand of her hair, Carisia spoke with a chilling tone.

“We’ll first investigate those who are ‘unusually inactive.'”

Arguirion is a group that must not catch others’ attention. Secrets are most lethal when fewer people know them. Behind-the-scenes tactics inevitably expose the presence of the sponsor behind a candidate.

“There’s no strategy as effective as behind-the-scenes tactics, so there’s little reason not to use them. Unless they have no sponsor, or their sponsor must remain hidden. Or, though this would be extremely rare, the candidate is confident enough not to need a sponsor.”

“I’ll compile a list of candidates without sponsors and report back.”

“Ah, that’s fine. Director Arabel will take care of that.”

Somewhere, a full-body cyborg mage wearing a spider-shaped enchantware was groaning through another night of overtime work.

“We have two tasks: protecting Knemon who will become Tower Master, and tracking Arguirion.”

Ortes nodded. Even if Arguirion didn’t try to assassinate Knemon, the sponsors behind other candidates were different. But a question arose.

“Knemon may have been away from active duty, but he’s a solver who survived in the extra-dimensional adjacent zone. Would an escort be meaningful?”

Here, the meaning of “escort” wasn’t about necessity but effectiveness.

The frontline with extra-dimensional spaces was so dangerous it deserved the term “magical battlefield.” Knemon was skilled enough to have survived there with all limbs intact and retired peacefully—though Knemon would disagree with this assessment now that he was entangled with Ortes again.

Any personnel sent to assassinate someone of his caliber would likely be beyond what ordinary escorts could handle.

The first few attempts might involve average assassins who didn’t know Knemon’s true identity, but one couldn’t underestimate the skills of assassins carefully selected by those trying to devour the remains of the True Magic Tower.

‘To be a meaningful variable against assassination attempts on Knemon, one would need to be at least at the director level.’

This was the problem. Hydra Company’s directors were already overworked in their respective positions according to Carisia’s plans. If Carisia left to track Arguirion, the workload for each director would clearly increase.

“We’ll assign Kine.”

Carisia answered nonchalantly.

“Pardon?”

Ortes, who had assumed he would escort Knemon while Carisia hunted for Arguirion from behind, questioned this unexpected answer.

“I’ve tested her skills repeatedly. She’s perfect in both concealing divine power and projecting magical power.”

An essential aspect of Kine’s combat capability was her use of divine power. Unlike magic that distorts the world’s principles, divine power reflects those principles, which is why it promotes natural healing regardless of religious denomination.

Carisia focused on this point while training Kine.

“Kine can use divine power internally while simultaneously using magic. You could call it ability-based multitasking.”

A technique of constantly healing her body internally while covering the exterior with magical power to mask the presence of divine power. With this technique, Kine gained endurance to continue fighting indefinitely unless killed instantly.

“From recovering Knemon in emergency situations to capturing his soul with necromancy if everything goes wrong and he dies—there’s no better escort than Kine.”

Ortes had to admit there was no more appropriate personnel selection than Kine. Without him noticing, Carisia had transformed a survivor of a fallen religious order into a warrior.

“If Knemon dominates the Tower Master selection with our support, the number of forces provoked by this will increase. So while Kine blocks such approaches, we track Arguirion among those who don’t approach?”

Carisia nodded reluctantly.

‘If I were Haltos…’

She would have moved to claim the remains of the Amimone Magic Tower while being certain of Ortes’s interference. Rather than preparing contingencies for “if” Ortes appeared, she would formulate plans assuming Ortes would definitely interfere with their movements.

Therefore, Carisia wished to stay close to Ortes, but the cold rational part of her pointed out that this would be wasteful.

Among Carisia’s assets, no one was as powerful as Ortes. If Arguirion attempted to confront Ortes, they would need preparations on par with those required to assassinate a Ten Towers elder.

Searching in only one direction at a time was too inefficient, and the means to threaten Ortes were limited.

Between concern and rationality, Carisia’s conclusion was compromise.

“We’ll search separately, but call me if you find anything suspicious.”

***

Knemon adjusted his attire with evident discomfort. He was at the grand banquet hall in Algot City.

Naturally, behind Knemon, who was invited as a candidate for the Amimone Magic Tower Master position, were the sources of his discomfort.

Carisia, Kine, and Ortes.

While the last person was primarily responsible for Knemon’s discomfort, the first person occasionally had aspects that made him uncomfortable as well.

Like now.

“Kine is insurance.”

At the social gathering where the Ten Towers had assembled candidates before announcing the details of the Amimone Tower Master selection process, Carisia, attending as Knemon’s sponsoring organization, spoke softly.

“Insurance? What kind of insurance?”

“For your death.”

Knemon was a perceptive man and could understand the entire situation from that. At Carisia’s signal, Kine was able to manifest an ominously flickering shadow flame at the tip of her index finger.

It was magical power of the darkness attribute with remarkable purity. This indicated that despite Kine’s youthful appearance, she had deep expertise in dark magic, specifically in necromancy as hinted in previous conversations.

“I should thank you, then.”

The Amimone Magic Tower—the opportunity to rule over the heads of his family’s enemies had come right before him. Having his perfect revenge ruined by an unexpected assassination was not what Knemon wanted.

It would be better to continue living even as a puppet controlled by necromancy. In fact, he was already being controlled in Ortes’s grasp anyway, so he didn’t feel much resistance.

With that thought, Knemon decided to focus on surveying his potential competitors rather than worrying about the child who would be both his guard and monitor.

Meanwhile, Kine was perplexed.

‘What am I doing here…?’

After being summoned by the president almost daily for various training, she was suddenly deployed to the field. Surely her original purpose was to enter Mouseion, get specially recruited into Black Darkness, and leak information from within.

Although Ortes had explained that he could attract the Ten Towers’ attention through “other means,” that other method turned out to be…

‘Preventing assassination attempts on a Tower Master candidate?’

She recalled Ortes grinning before this assignment, saying, “If you complete this mission perfectly, you’ll gain attention as a suddenly emerged genius mage.”

‘Right. If a suddenly appeared kid blocks assassins, that would certainly create a buzz!’

While Kine was mentally cursing Ortes, he was surveying the surroundings.

Befitting an event held by the Ten Towers to signal to traitors that “we’ll spare you if you change your mind now,” this social gathering was exceptionally lavish for an event held in a city that had been swept by magical disaster just days ago.

‘I think I’ve seen those figures in the True Magic Tower registry.’

Ortes’s main observation targets were not the Tower Master candidates but the sponsors behind them. If any of them had accepted Arguirion’s favor, it could shorten the tracking process by several steps.

However, no informants were visible to his slightly narrowed eyes.

‘With my luck, things wouldn’t be that easy. …Hm?’

Someone was approaching the Hydra Company group. Ortes’s eyes narrowed further.